"People who love to eat are always the best people." -Julia Child

Homemade Apple Pie

Apple Pie is my very favorite pie of all time. This is saying a lot because I’m basically obsessed with pie. Incidentally, apple pie is the only pie that I’m won’t ever eat the store bought version of. Canned apple pie filling is just so gross. I like my apples sliced nice and thin and baked up with cinnamon, flour, and nothing else. No canned apple pie slime. See? Snob.

I love to play with the crust on this pie. Usually I just do a simple, crimped double crust. Sometimes I do lattice, sometimes I use a cookie cutter to do shapes or designs on it. I love apple pie because of all the options.

Peel and slice your apples. Place them into a large bowl and mix with sugar, flour, and cinnamon and set aside while you make your crust.

Place your butter and shortening into a food processor fitted with a steel blade. Add the salt and flour to the mixture. Place the lid on the food processor and pulse about 6 times until the mixture has coarse, pea sized crumbs. Add 1/3 cup of water and pulse 2-3 more times. Add last two tablespoons of water and pulse 2-3 more times again.

Remove from the food processor, divide into two even disks.

Place one disk onto a floured surface. Roll one ball of your dough out into a large circle that is bigger than your pie pan.

Carefully lift the crust into your pie plate. (I use a thin plastic cutting board and work it gently underneath the crust to loosen it from the counter and lift it without breaking) Trim the edges, but leave about an inch of excess dough for pinching together later.

Roll out your next dough ball in the same way on the same piece of parchment paper. Pour your apple filling into the prepared crust (leaving about half of the liquid in the pan), and then place the top crust over the top. Trim again, leaving about an inch of dough to crimp with. (Or do a lattice crust or whatever design you desire) For the beautiful, swirly lattice you see in these pictures, check out the tutorial on LokoKitchen.

Use a knife to slit 3 openings in the top of the crust for steam to escape.

Incidentally, you should probably line the bottom of your oven with foil. There is a good chance that your pie filling will bubble over a bit.

Brush the entire thing with egg wash (1 egg + 2 tablespoons of water) (the egg wash is optional, but will give you a more shiny, golden looking crust) Sometimes I also sprinkle with a little sugar after the egg wash -it’s very pretty -and place it in the preheated oven for 45-50 minutes until the crust is golden brown. Check about halfway through the baking, and if the edges are getting too brown, crimp foil over the edges or place a pie crust shield (best invention EVER) over the top.

Remove from oven and serve warm or cold. It will be delicious either way.